Five great phones for binge watching to your hearts content

18 Jul 2017 by James Rogerson

Smartphones have come a long way over the last few years. Now many of them have big screens, big batteries and great audio, making them surprisingly good for binge-watching your favourite shows and movies.

And with Three’s new Go Binge service there’s never been a better time to get started, but whether you’re on Three or not some phones stand out above others for serious streamers and we’ve collected the top five below.

Sony Xperia XZ Premium

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium was built for video. It’s one of only two phones with a 2160 x 3840 4K display (the other one also being a Sony phone), so it’s one of the only ways to make the most of 4K content on a phone.

But the Xperia XZ Premium also supports HDR content, and the combination can lead to incredible visuals that almost pop out of the screen.

There’s not a huge amount of content that takes advantage of this tech yet, but the selection is growing, and the Xperia XZ Premium will ensure your media abilities are future-proofed.

It has a reasonably large screen too, at 5.46 inches, coming in at an incredibly crisp 807 pixels per inch.

Moving away from the screen, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium also delivers great audio, with front-facing speakers for stereo sound pumped towards you, and audio-enhancing skills when you plug in a set of headphones.

And while not the longest-lasting phone around (we’ll get to one of them in a minute), the 3,230mAh battery in the Xperia XZ Premium should just about survive a movie marathon.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus has a big, bright and vibrant 6.2-inch screen. At that size it’s almost a tablet, making it great for big screen entertainment, and at 1440 x 2960 it’s very sharp, coming in at 529 pixels per inch.

It’s also curvy and almost bezel-free, giving it a great look and minimising the size in the hand, but its real secret weapon is its use of Super AMOLED. Most smartphone screens are LCD, but AMOLED displays tend to offer more vivid colours and blacker blacks, as they can turn pixels off individually for a true black.

As such, videos on the S8 Plus really pop, and like the Xperia XZ Premium it supports mobile HDR, bringing content even more to life.

It’s also super widescreen, with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9, and its 3,500mAh battery delivers fairly strong life.

HTC U11

The HTC U11 doesn’t have the AMOLED of the Galaxy S8 Plus or the 4K of the Xperia XZ Premium, but it’s not too far behind either, with a 5.5-inch 1440 x 2560 screen, coming in at a crisp 534 pixels per inch.

Where it really excels though, is in audio. There are several reasons for that. Firstly, the HTC U11 has dual speakers, delivering the company’s famous bass-heavy BoomSound.

But if you’d rather use headphones for your binging you’re in luck there too, as not only is a surprisingly decent set of HTC USonic earphones bundled with the phone, but also the U11 can create a personalised listening experience based on the shape of your ears and your hearing.

iPhone 7 Plus

If you’re not into Android then the iPhone 7 Plus is the absolute best phone for binging in Apple’s camp.

There are obvious reasons for this. For one, at 5.5 inches the screen is one of the biggest Apple has ever put on a phone, and at 1080 x 1920 it’s also one of the sharpest.

And while it’s not as high resolution as rivals it is high quality, with a wide colour gamut delivering natural, realistic visuals.

With dual speakers for stereo sound too, and decent audio when using headphones, this is a very binge-worthy handset.

Lenovo P2

The Lenovo P2 is all about the battery, as at 5,100mAh it’s absolutely massive and should be able to survive a longer binge than almost any other handset, making it ideal for long journeys.

Elsewhere it’s less exceptional but still strong, with a bright 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 Super AMOLED display (matching the iPhone 7 Plus for size and resolution and the Galaxy S8 Plus for display technology).

Audio isn’t amazing, and the Xperia XZ Premium, Galaxy S8 Plus and HTC U11 all have better screens overall, but they’ll run out of juice a lot faster and they’re far more expensive than this bargain of a handset.

Conclusion

Any of these phones will serve you well during your next binge session, but the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is probably the best overall right now. The huge size, combined with a great quality very sharp screen and HDR support make it tough to beat.

However, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium comes close, and thanks to its 4K resolution it’s more future-proofed.

The HTC U11 is king if you put audio ahead of video, and the iPhone 7 Plus is the best option for Apple fans, while the Lenovo P2 is probably the worst of these at the moment, but it will last the longest, and costs far less than any of the others.